The report Wednesday by the semiofficial Fars news agency quoted a statement from the Iranian Intelligence Ministry. It did not say how many were arrested or when. It also did not say which media outlets were involved. The report referred to those arrested as a “network,” but it did not explain further.

This week Iranian authorities arrested 14 local journalists said to be linked to US and British Persian-language media outlets.

In recent years, Iran has denounced the Persian services of the Voice of America and the BBC, describing them as arms of US and British intelligence agencies.